Occupant Safety and Health

Overview

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Modern buildings are generally considered safe and healthy working environments. However, the potential for indoor air quality problems, occupational illnesses and injuries, exposure to hazardous materials, and accidental falls beckons architects, engineers, and facility managers to design and maintain buildings and processes that ensure occupant safety and health. Notably, building designs must focus on eliminating or preventing hazards to personnel, rather than relying on personal protective equipment and administrative or process procedures to prevent mishaps.

Protecting the health, safety, and welfare (HSW) of building occupants has expanded beyond disease prevention and nuisance control to include mental as well as physical health (see Productive) and protecting the ecological health of a place (see Sustainable) through the creation of spaces that enable delight and the realization of human potential.

Threats to occupants from indoor air contamination can be studied using Computational Fluid Dynamics.

Therefore, the design team should apply an integrated approach, including work process analysis and hazard recognition to develop solutions that provide healthy built environments, having no undue physical stressors, as well as meeting other project requirements. In addition, consideration of HSW issues should be an integral part of all phases of a building's life cycle: planning, design, construction, operations and maintenance, renovation, and final disposal.

Provide designs that eliminate or reduce hazards in the work place to prevent mishaps and reduce reliance on personal protective equipment.

Prevent occupational injuries and illnesses.

Prevent falls from heights.

Prevent slips, trips, and falls.

Ensure electrical safety from turn-over through Operations and Maintenance. Modifications must be in conformance with life safety codes and standards and be documented.

Eliminate exposure to hazardous materials (e.g., volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and formaldehyde, and lead and asbestos in older buildings).

Incorporate integrated pest management (IPM) concepts and requirements into facility design and construction (e.g., use of proper door sweeps, lighting, trash compactors, etc.) and require the use of IPM be performed by qualified personnel during all phases of construction and after the facility is completed. This should include not only interior pest management, but landscape and turf pest management as well. See Sustainable O&M.

Perform Proper Building Operations and Maintenance

Proper preventative maintenance (PM) not only improves the useful life of the systems and building structures, but it can lend to good indoor air quality and prevent "sick building" syndromes. See Sustainable O&M Practices.

Related Issues

Health and Safety of Telecommuting Employees: In January 2000, the Department of Labor said that employers would not be held liable for health and safety violations occurring in the homes of telecommuting employees. See "Department of Labor CPL 02-00-125." The Department of Labor stated that it would not hold employers responsible for health and safety violations that occur in home workplaces other than home offices, for example, fireworks being manufactured in the home, or other activities involving the use of hazardous materials.

Contamination of HVAC Systems: Potential exposure of building occupants to molds from contaminated HVAC systems, especially during maintenance and renovation projects, remains a serious concern. Reaction to exposure can range from negligible to severe among building occupants and can frequently be very difficult to definitively identify as a causal factor for occupants' symptoms. Special care must be exercised in HVAC design, especially, to prevent excessive humidity in system components.

Fiberglass is used extensively in building construction, especially for insulation and sound attenuation in HVAC systems. Considerable concern exists regarding the potential adverse health effects of inhaling fiberglass fibers. A number of studies are currently investigating the long-term effects of inhalation exposure to fiberglass. At a minimum, fiberglass exposed to the air stream in an HVAC system will shed particles and serve as a matrix for collecting dust and dirt that act as a substrate for microbial growth.

Contamination of domestic hot water systems, cooling towers, and condensate pans: continues to result in infections of building occupants on a regular basis. The results of such infections can range from mild to fatal and affect one or many employees. They invariably result in employee apprehension and media attention. Mechanical engineers must be vigilant to avoid system designs that may promote the growth of legionella sp.

Training

About WBDG

WBDG is a gateway to up-to-date information on integrated 'whole building' design techniques and technologies. The goal of 'Whole Building' Design is to create a successful high-performance building by applying an integrated design and team approach to the project during the planning and programming phases.